How To Watch Netflix In Australia

UPDATED: February 4, 2014 – Yes you can still use this method to signup and access Netflix in Australia!

Note: The program I use to watch Netflix in Australia is called ExpressVPN. You can learn more by visiting ExpressVPN or by reading the rest of this post. Enjoy!

I don’t have to be the one to tell you that Netflix is not yet available in most countries around the world. In fact there are very few countries where you can officially access the service. For those living outside the United States, there are no Netflix competitors that are actually worthwhile. You could sit idle and wait for Netflix to officially release their service in your country, or you could do what I did and find a creative way to access Netflix in Australia.

If you’re worried about the technical side of getting Netflix to work in Australia, I have good news: Getting started couldn’t be easier. Thanks to a small trick I discovered, it’s very easy and straightforward to start watching Netflix in Australia. What we’re going to do is install a very small piece of software that will help us make our computer think it is based in the USA, thus allowing us to do cool things like stream movies from a service like Netflix or even Hulu.

So, if you’re in Australia and you’re hoping to gain access to Netflix, keep reading and by the end of this post you’ll have everything you need to access Netflix.

How To Watch Netflix in Australia

Okay let’s get started with this. In case you don know, Netflix employs a tech process that has come to be known as geo-targeting. This allows the movie streaming service to restrict access to users who are trying to access the service from “foreign” IP addresses. Essentially what this means is that to actually access Netflix from Australia we’ll need to change our IP address from an Australian IP address to an American IP address, allowing Netflix to recognize us as being located within the US.

Changing your IP address may sound like a daunting task but rest assured, it’s a lot easier to do than you may think. There are several ways to do this but in my experience, the easiest and quickest way is to use something called a VPN which stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN is, as the name suggests, a private network that connects your computer to a server located somewhere in the world. Once your computer connects to this server, you can access the internet and browse through the server. This has the awesome effect of giving you a new IP address based on the remote servers location. Pretty cool, right? I think so!

For a more detailed explanation on how VPNs work you can read this guide.

So how do you setup a VPN?

Okay, let’s jump right into getting this VPN thing setup. There are many, many VPN software providers online (I’ve personally review more than 10 of these). The main consideration we need to keep in mind here is that we need a VPN provider that will work with a Netflix account. I settled on a VPN company called ExpressVPN. I’ve been using the software for over 2 years (pretty much since I relocated from New York to Europe).

ExpressVPN is easily one of the best VPN providers online today. I use them because their connection time and server speeds are the best I could find, making it really easy to stream movies and TV shows from the Netflix streaming service. I’ll give you just a few quick points though on why I chose these guys:

Works on PC and Mac (also supports android and ios devices).

Many, many VPN servers in multiple countries.

Fast bandwidth

Works 100% with Netflix

There are two other companies that I’ve used successfully with Netflix. The first is called IPVanish (review here) and the other is called ExpressVPN (review here). Both of these will also work with Netflix. Personally I use ExpressVPN but IPVanish will work for you as well.

In the rest of this guide I’ll be using ExpressVPN as an example

Connecting to the VPN is easy as signing in to Facebook. You simply load the application and it will look like the screenshot below. Simply enter your username and password.

You can then use the menu to select your new IP address location. Like I said, there are some many locations to choose from and ExpressVPN is always adding new servers which are made available to you for no additional charge.

This is what ExpressVPN looks like on a windows operating system.

After you’ve successfully established your VPN connection, you can confirm your IP address has changed by going to Google.com and typing in “What is my IP address.” Once you can confirm it’s been changed head over to Netflix.com to signup for an account. All you have to do is remember to stay connected to Hidemyass while accessing movies on Netflix.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and please feel free to ask questions by leaving a comment below!

Enjoy watching Netflix in Australia!

If you’re in Europe and would like to learn how to watch Netflix in Europe you can read this guide.